How I Became a Genealogy Geek: Darcy Boock Interview

Darcy Kleeman Boock, married to Gerald "Jerry" Boock (Norbert and Marian Oelrich Boock's son), has a surprising penchant for researching her husband's side of the family, as well as her own. Her competence, enthusiasm, and driving sense of inquiry are simply the essence of Darcy as a person. Jerry and Darcy have enjoyed adventuring out with their daughters during their summers, free from the encumbrances of the school year, on road trips across the United States and Canada. They've also traveled to Europe, where they became friends with Ute and Wolfgang Boock, ardent genealogists, themselves. When I mentioned to Darcy that she "just had to connect with Jim Aufderheide," the next thing I knew, they already had met in New Ulm and gotten deeply into family history with Jim Aufderheide and Herb and Dorothy Schaper. Darcy is clearly a catalyst for taking action, and I appreciate her for it. (jim)

How I Became a Genealogy Geek

by Darcy Boock

How was it that you developed an interest in family history?

It was in 1978, right about the time that Alex Haley’s book Roots had been broadcast, that I sat with my beloved grandmother, Esther Seffens (nee Hottmann), and together we looked at old photographs. She told me who the people were in the photos and I started writing things down, which helped me to see the relationships from one family to another and how I was connected. She sparked my interest. She was 84 years old at that time and died six years later at the age of 89. Since then all of those wonderful photographs have disappeared.

Shortly after that I took some genealogy classes offered through adult education and then I was hooked. Once we moved to this area I joined a local genealogy society, St. Croix Valley Genealogical Society, which meets here in River Falls. I have been the treasurer (not president) for that organization for the past 20 years. Even though I have no ancestors who ever lived in this part of the state, this group was and still is a wonderful inspiration. We research together, go to regional and national genealogy conferences together, and meet once a month with our genealogy society and four times a year with the Germanic Genealogy Society, based in St. Paul. Now I teach beginning genealogy classes with two other members of SCVGS to help others in the adventure of finding their own ancestry.

Where do you belong in the genealogical lines?

I am actually an “outlaw” when it comes to the Boock, Aufderheide, Schapekahm, and Plath family lines. After researching my various family lines for many years, I decided it was time to get started on my husband Jerry’s lines, even though he isn’t the least bit interested in family history. I saw just a wee spark of interest in him though this past summer when we visited his great-uncle Christian Oelrich’s grave in Silver Cliff, Colorado. Christian had settled in the Wet Mountain Valley with a group of German immigrants from Chicago in 1870. They actually formed a German colony there called Colfax Colony, which failed within the first year. I think Jerry feels much like his mother did when she often expressed to me, “Why do you want to know about all of those old dead people anyway?” My knowing that Jerry’s sister Marilyn and also nephew Mike Schmidt, as well as, some of the Oelrich cousins, are very interested in this family history, keeps me going on his side of the family.

What areas of family history are most intriguing to you?

I am most intrigued by the information I find on families in the “old country”. By using the church and civil records microfilmed by the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS-Mormons), I have been able to trace some families back several generations. I also enjoy the new friendships I have gained through family research, several through email contacts, and others whom I have actually met, like Jim Aufderheide, Herb and Dorothy Schaper, and Elaine Schapekahm.

How have you organized your work?

I have gathered my information on families into 3-ring binders, as well as vertical files. I also use the genealogy software program Personal Ancestral File (PAF), which is a free download from the LDS Web site http://www.familysearch.org./ It is thus very easy to share information with others who also use a genealgoy software program, even if it is not the same program.

What successes and frustrations have you experienced in your work?

Not all records have been microfilmed by the Family History Library (LDS) and this causes great frustration for all researchers. Most of the Catholic church records in Bavaria, for instance, are not filmed because permission has not been granted by the churches. My Wiedel line comes from this area.. I have not been able to obtain the birth/baptismal record for my grandmother, Amanda Kleemann (nee Reinke), who came from the village of Bresin, Kreis Lauenburg in Pomerania and thus have not been able to research her line. I believe her birth record is in the archives in Gdansk, Poland. Unfortunately, I do not know any Polish, but my cousin’s friend is working on this for us.

Another frustration for me has been my great-great-grandmother Barbara Stierli. She was born in Switzerland and immigrated from there in 1855 dying two years later, so I know nothing about her other than her mother’s name (she was illegitimate). I believe she came from Canton Aargau for which the records have not been filmed, so I will need to write to the archives there to obtain her birth record.

I have also had many successes using the microfilmed records of the Family History Library. I have been able to trace Jerry’s Schwantes line in Pomerania (now Poland) back several generations, my Hottmann line in Grunbach, Württemberg, Germany back several generations, my Wolf and Hildebrand lines in Brandenburg and Pomerania to some extent, and the Aufderheide and Schapekahm lines as well.

In correspondence I met my father’s first cousin (whom he never knew), who first lived in East Germany, but is now living in the West. Through Renate I have learned so much about our common ancestors who lived in former East Germany and along the Oder River in villages on both sides of the river. She wrote many letters and one Werner Kleemann answered, who is also a genealogist living not too distant from Berlin. Through him I have discovered my Kleemann ancestors.

Through use of message boards on the Internet I have also met others who have helped me in my research. Wolfgang Boock, living in Bordesholm in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, not only has a tremendous database of Boock names that he has shared with me, but also was so kind to help (with his wife Ute) in researching Oelrichs in the church archives in Schelswig-Holstein.
I have also had luck with my early New England families through the wealth of records that have been published over the years. My Cox, Harding, Marston, Myrick/Merrick, Watkins, and Seffens family lines, however, are still challenging for me.

What standards guide you?

I use Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian for documenting my sources. When I first started my research so many years ago, I didn’t know the proper methods of documentation, so some of my early research is not very well documented.

What goals are you working toward?

One of my main goals has always been to locate the ship passenger lists for all the families I am researching. I have found a few, but I have a long ways to go. I have not been able to find ship lists for Christian Friederich “Fritz”Boock or Friederich Aufderheide or the Johann Gerhard Schapekahm family. Recently however, I did locate the ship passenger list for the Carl Ludwig Plath family with daughter Wilhelmine, who immigrated to Quebec in 1864 and my Johann Gottlieb Hottmann and Barbara Stierli and daughter Elisabeth, who immigrated to New York in 1855. With the help of Web sites such as http://www.castlegarden.org,/ http://www.ellisisland.org,/ and the Ship Transcribers Guild, there is still hope and I will continue to search until I find all the passenger lists for whom I search.

Some day I hope to write a book or two on the families that I am researching, but I lack the stories on my side of the family that are so prevalent on the Boock and Aufderheide sides.

There you have it!